National Defense Authorization Act For Fiscal Year 2016

Floor Speech

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Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to this
amendment.

It is deejaa vu all over again. Once again, the Congress is
confronted with a Republican effort to militarize our borders by
funneling billions of dollars of military equipment to local law
enforcement anywhere in the country for border security activities. The
1033 program transfers billions of dollars of military equipment to law
enforcement agencies without any congressional oversight or community
input.

This amendment adds a border security activities priority to the
program that will quietly funnel military-grade weaponry to law enforcement for
this poorly defined priority. Passage of this amendment means that any
law enforcement agency anywhere in the country can get an MRAP or an M-
16 straight from the battlefield in Iraq if they simply tell the DOD
they need it for border security activities, regardless of whether the
agency is 10 miles or thousands of miles from the border with Mexico or
Canada.

Mr. Chairman, this amendment also means that campus police at local
school districts and colleges can get the same MRAP or M-16 straight
from the battlefield in Iraq if they tell the DOD they need it for
border security activities.

Last year, Republicans tried to include this language in the fiscal
year '15 NDAA. Congress wisely chose to reject it. Earlier this year,
Republicans tried to pass this language by burying it in their failed
border security bill, but, fortunately, the Congress wisely chose to
reject the idea once again. But here we are once again confronted with
this absurd reality and this effort to give local police this
equipment.

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